Millenials & Parents: Commonly used acronyms & terms

Kids today or as they call it now, Millenials, have their own language and reality is that parents need to keep up with those too. With the increasing demands of society (especially if you live in the city) and with kids and teens surrounded by many influencers around, parents have that timeless responsibility to guard and guide their children toward the right path. To do this responsibility, a small thing parents need to do is to keep themselves abreast of the new generation lingo and acronyms. There are just too many but the usual stuff I encounter are here. What’s actually more confusing is that some have multiple meanings.

Bae – Babe or baby.Used as a term of endearment not to address an infant. It can also mean before anyone else.

Zero Chill – means you’re very uncool, baduy as what Filipinos call it

Snatched – may be interchanged with on point or onfleek. Describes something really good, perfect, high quality.

Can’t even – loss for words, annoyed

Goals – something or someone you admire or want

Fam – shortcut for family

Fambam – refers to close family or friends that are like family

High-key or Low-key – high-key is when you need to express something out loud or may refer to something you like. Low-key is to keep it on a low or secret or something you dislike.

No filter – on its natural state, no filter or effect used to enhance a photo or something

Noob – new or inexperienced person

TTYL – talk to you later

TIA – thanks in advance

NTS – note to self

OOTD – outfit of the day

OOTN – outfit of the night

Selfeet – photo of your feet taken by yourself

YW – You’re welcome

TMI – too much information

Groupfie – group selfie, group of people taking photos of themselves as a group

ICYMI – in case you missed it

b4 – before

b/c – because

BTW – by the way

IDK -I don’t know

CR8– create

TL;DR – too long, didn’t read

TBT – throwback Thursday

Yaaaaas – saying yes to express excitement

hashtag – it is now written like this to emphasize something instead of #

ship – shortcut for relationship usually for romantic relationships

FR – for real

lit – groovy, cool

IKR – I know right?

TTYTT – to tell you the truth

Dope – not marijuana! it means great

NM – never mind

Feels – feelings

YOLO – you only live once

IDC – I don’t care

JK – just kidding

THX – thanks

ILY – I love you

FOMO – fear of missing out

SMH – shaking my head

IRL – in real life

Perf – perfect

V – very

the struggle is real – tough or hard task / challenge or problem

JOMO – Joy of missing out, to pertain to a lame event or happening

Phubbing – from phone snubbing – when you snob someone while using your mobile phone or any mobile device

This is not all of it and this is not the end of the list. It grows every week, every month, every year. It never ends and never stops. The generations just keep on getting too creative and probably lazy to type? Agree? hahaha!

Of course, some people from older generations don’t get it. It becomes harder to decode and harder to understand. But that’s how the generations make their language unique and hard for elders to grasp I guess? Or maybe it just really puts excitement, coolness, and emotions into their language online and offline. By the time our kids are teenagers, this list will be so old, funny old to be exact or shall I say zero chill!